Eutrophication and flooding are perennial problems in agricultural watersheds of the northern Great Plains. A high proportion of annual runoff and nutrient transport occurs with snowmelt in this region. Extensive surface drainage modification, frozen soils, and frequent backwater or ice damming impacts on flow measurement represent unique challenges to accurately modeling watershed scale hydrological processes. A physically-based, non-calibrated model created using the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform (CRHM) was parameterized to simulate hydrological processes within a low slope, clay soil, and intensively surface drained agricultural watershed. These characteristics are common to most tributaries of the Red River of the North. Analysis of the observed water level records for the study watershed (La Salle River) indicate that ice cover and backwater issues at time of peak flow may impact the accuracy of both modeled and measured stream flows, highlighting the value of evaluating a non-calibrated model in this environment. Simulations best matched the streamflow record in years when peak and annual discharges were equal to or above the medians of 6.7 m3 s−1 and 1.25 × 107 m3, respectively, with an average Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) of 0.76. Simulation of low-flow years (below the medians) was more challenging (average NSE